BIO
R. W. Haynes writes and teaches in South Texas. He is working on a second book on playwright/screenwriter Horton Foote. A list of some places he has published is online at http://www.pw.org/content/r_w_
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Chemistry Wins Again
His girlfriend Sophie had a brainstorm
And changed her major, she had so much fun
Listening to a sharp young professor perform
Last Woden’s Day in Psych 101:
She said her professor wore what sounded to me
A lot like a Nehru jacket, though she wouldn’t know
What that was, and a beard, as it was psychology,
And Nehru was cooking; “Note the size,” he’d go,
“Of this pencil eraser. All our pleasure and pain
Occurs in a brain space of about this size,
And neither region has a definite domain,
Which is why we eat cheese with apple pies.”
He went on and on, so persuasive somehow
That Sophie’s a psychology major now.
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The Incredible Recovery of Osvald Alving
He woke: “My paints, Mother, for suddenly
I see in your countenance a subject for
A masterpiece neither an illness nor
Inky artificiality
Can block from the sustaining light of day.
I’ve dreamed of restoration comedy
And learned to dream my author’s dreams away.
If you will kindly sit and look at me
In the morning light, I’ll put luminosity
On canvas, all indifferent things aside,
To generate your violent sympathy
And fix emotion’s vast and swirling tide.
The spirit is upon me, now, and I’ll
Swiftly paint that devastated smile.”
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